Child Advocate: Be Selective in Granting Daycare Permits and Supervise Strictly

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Child advocate Nahar has urged that the case of violence against children at a Yogyakarta daycare serve as a reminder that mechanisms for granting permits and supervising daycares must be continuously improved.

“Improvement efforts must be selective in granting permits, checking development, and supervision mechanisms, including efforts to enhance service capacity by the human resources possessed and accredited by authorised institutions in maintaining the quality of services at the institution,” said Nahar when contacted in Jakarta on Tuesday.

To that end, the institutions issuing operational permits for daycares must tighten permit issuance and increase supervision.

“The permit-issuing institutions are not singular; the Education Office, Social Services Office, and the Office of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection (PPPA). These three institutions at the local level must continuously improve the coordination mechanisms for granting permits and supervision,” said Nahar, who is a former Deputy for Special Child Protection at the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection (PPPA).

“Cases like this keep recurring. Therefore, they need to be resolved legally and administratively,” said the lecturer at the Bandung Polytechnic of Social Welfare (Poltekesos).

Previously, Daycare Little Aresha in Yogyakarta was reported to the police regarding allegations of violence and discrimination against children entrusted there.

The police then raided the daycare on 24 April 2026.

At least 53 children were indicated to have experienced violence, discrimination, and neglect out of 103 children entrusted at the daycare.

Two of the 13 suspects are DK (51) as the foundation chair, and AP (42) as the school principal. The other eleven suspects are daycare caregivers.

Violence against children in daycares has also occurred several years ago. In 2024, a caregiver assaulted a toddler aged 1 year and 3 months at a daycare in Depok, West Java.

The perpetrator cruelly poured hot water on the victim because the victim kept crying when about to be cleaned after defecating.